It’s true: Cattle market prices are at what some analysts have called “historic highs.”
You might think that for a state like ours, high prices means high profits for our local cattle producers.
Unfortunately, market analysts are quick to say that is not the case.
For the entirety of 2023, slaughtered steer prices across all U.S. markets have remained above those of the previous year by 20-30 cwt, ranging from $155 to $170, and practically soared above the 2017-2021 average. According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fed steer prices reached above $175 cwt around Easter, topping the 2014-2015 record of about $172. James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said those prices reached another new high last week.
But of course, a dollar in 2023 is not what it was in 2014. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation during those nine years has reduced the value of a dollar spent in the consumer price index by 28 cents.
Mitchell said inflation is just one reason to keep today’s market prices in perspective.
For cattle producers in the U.S. Southeast and elsewhere, 2014-2015 was an unforgettable season, for reasons both good and bad. Prices spiked to record highs at the end of 2014, owing largely to market demand, at a time when feed, fuel and other input prices remained relatively low. When supply began catching up, however, market competition pulled the floor out from beneath those prices, leaving many producers with larger herds they had to either maintain or sell off at much-lower-than-anticipated prices.
Mitchell said that today’s high input prices, while largely the bane of many producers’ existence, will at least help sustain the cattle market prices.
As always, spring and summer weather will play the wild card in cattle production. While Arkansas has seen a fairly wet few months, that augurs nothing for the summer, when rainfall will be more critical for providing grazing material to livestock.
Even if Arkansas does see a dry summer, the state’s cattle producers still have a lead on some neighboring states that have dwelled in the doldrums of drought for more than a year now.
To learn more about the work Mitchell does through the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and other research performed by the state cooperative extension service, visit uaex.uada.edu.
